Barki Gergely et al.: Czóbel. A French Hungarian painter - ArtMill publications 5. (Szentendre, 2014)
Gergely Barki: Czóbel from Paris to Paris 1903-1925
117. Béla Czóbel: Berlin Street, 1920. Private collection, not on exhibition 95 On the basis of research that was conducted by Andrea Dunai in Paul Cassirer’s private letter archives, no sales occurred at the exhibition. I thank her for the information and give special thanks to Tamás Kieselbach and Péter Molnos for putting us in contact. 96 Weise, E. [Erich]: “Béla Czóbel”, Das Kunstblatt, 1920 (4th year), pp 115-117. 97 “In Berlin, the painter Kerschbaumer was a collector. He came together with Heckel and the Belgian painter Ensor. Kerschbaumer was a rich boy: a big picture from Ensor and Interior with Furnace from me. The large picture was approximately 120 X 80 cm.” Horváth 1961. 98 Kállai 1934, p 22. from 1916. A 1917 water colour named Flötenspieler (Flute Player) was also on display, though unfortunately we only know it from a reproduction (Plate 114). Interestingly, already a month before the exhibition, this piece became part of the private collection of Mr Klaus Gebhard from Elberfeld, Germany, who could have obtained possession of many works by Czóbel.94 Although the exhibition was not a financial success,95 it received serious media coverage. For instance, Erich Weise weighed Czóbel’s originality in a lengthy article and reproduced works that were not represented by pictures in the catalogue.96 It also marked the debut of his large-scale oil painting from 1919 (now missing) entitled Studio Corner with Furnace, which was probably painted in Berlin (Platens). All we know of its further fate is that Anton Kerschbaumer, one of Czóbel’s painter friends, purchased it.97 In these years, “the European capital of modernism” shifted to Berlin, in a rivalry with France. Nonetheless, as Ernő Kállai expressed it, “there was no political or spiritual revolution inciting masses of German artists that could rouse the Hungarian painter from his quiet complacency, as though the enchanting and dynamic civilization of Berlin whirled about him without leaving a trace.”98 Truly, the metropolitan world and the modern city’s mobility left little impression on Czóbel; however, besides his accustomed themes, he painted cityscapes in Berlin, too. It was practically inevitable, seeing how he lived in one of the busiest corners of the German capital, next door to the Anhalter Bahnhof. About a water colour of his, of which we have neither knowledge nor 82 CZÓBEL, A FRENCH HUNGARIAN PAINTER
